Crystal-field and Kondo scale investigation of CeMIn5 (M=Co, Ir and Rh): a combined x-ray absorption and inelastic neutron study

TL;DR

This study combines x-ray absorption and neutron scattering to analyze the crystal-field effects and Kondo temperatures in CeMIn5 compounds, revealing insights into their electronic structure and superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive experimental analysis of the crystal-field scheme and Kondo temperatures in CeMIn5 using combined XAS and INS techniques, which is novel.

Findings

Crystal-field splittings determined from INS.

Kondo temperatures derived from neutron line widths.

Superconducting CeCoIn5 and CeIrIn5 have quasielastic line widths comparable to crystal-field splittings.

Abstract

Linear polarized soft-x ray absorption (XAS) and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) experiments have been performed on CeMIn5 with M = Rh, Ir, and Co to determine the crystal-field scheme and characteristic Kondo temperatures T* for the hybridization between 4f and conduction electrons. The ground state wave functions are determined from the polarization dependent soft-XAS data at the cerium M4,5 edge and the crystal-field splittings from INS. The characteristic temperature T* has been determined from the line widths of the neutron scattering data. We find that the quasielastic line widths of the superconducting compounds CeCoIn5 and CeIrIn5 are comparable with the low energy crystal-field splitting.